Quick Cure for Throttle Lag - No Cost, DIY when you drive

[jesse789]

wow... wut a bunch of poo! the 5th gear is a tru fifth... not overdrive. if ur in drive, and ur going a high speed and u move over to sport it shifts down. i have no lag in drive... no lag in sport. wow i have no clue wut ur all talking about. the only time i get "lag" is when i let off the gas when the car is about to shift and that will happen in both D and S.

[mmcdonald]

theFlow, there is always some lag associated with an automatic transmission. You have to get into the throttle long and hard enough before the transmission kicks down. This is a different issue from throttle lag, which is the ecm issue. So maybe the lag at high speed is the tranny kick down.

poshpepper, I am not sure why there was no kick down, but maybe you were just in too high of a gear for the tranny to respond. This is a seperate issue from ecm-induced throttle lag. That's tranny lag.

Ironically, when I switched back to Drive to compare differences, Drive seems to have learned from Manumatic and now seeeeems to have less lag.

hehehe, he said "long.."

yeah, and "hard!" hehehehehe

[mmcdonald]

Jesse789, this issue only effects units made before about March 04. Is your ride later than that?

[jesse789]

i got my car in january... so unless its a nifty back to the furture car... i think not. still lost on everyones bitch'n.

[Arthur2k4]

Jesse789, this issue only effects units made before about March 04. Is your ride later than that?

wow serious?..mine is made on fourth of july..and i notcied lag the first week i got it and the rotten egg smeel..but they been both been gone since then

[mmcdonald]

Maybe I misread the thread on the tsb for throttle lag. I think someone more responsible needs to check it out.

[mmcdonald]

jesse789, the 5 speed is an overdrive transmission, meaning the final gear ratio is <1:1. Toyota lists it as "Transmission - 5-speed electronically controlled sequential automatic overdrive with intelligence (ECT-i)."

Please see: http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/2005/cam ... specs.html

For others: BTW, there is another lag issue associated with the "intelligence" part of the transmission. When you start the car, the transmission defaults to "economy" mode, which moves the shift points to around 2000rpm. When you get into it, it changes to "sport" mode and moves the shift points to about 4000rpm. It takes a second or two before the transmission believes that you actually want to go to sport mode before it kicks down. Tranny lag.

And if you have ever had your intelligent tranny stick on sport mode... no lag there. (VW beetle).

[jesse789]

i ment when i said 5th is not overdrive is that it goes 1-2-3-4-5 (all with OD on). unlike my 96 camry that would run best 1-2-3-4(w/o OD) and then turn it on. i know alot of people that did the same... it worked like an extra half gear, get more out of the lower gears without it on (messes up the trans after a long while). i just ment the OD is always on so theres no reason to bring it up. anywho... my car has only the one lag issue when i let off when it wants to shift so it gets confused on what i'm trying to do.

no rotten eggs... no noise other then my stuff in compartments and when the passenger seatbelt guild is extended and not being used it'll make some noises.

[mmcdonald]

Overdirve is defined as a gear ratio where the engine is turning fewer revolutions than the output shaft of the transmission, such that the ratio is less than one revolution of the engine per revolution of the output shaft, expressed as <1:1. The first 1 is the engine revolutions, and the second 1 is the output shaft revolutions.

Fifth gear on the Solara V6 Automatic is less than 1:1. The other four gears are >1:1, and so not overdriven.

Regardless of what you meant, or how you shift, 5th is overdrive on this particular transmission. OD means Overdrive.

Driving with OD off on some transmissions (like Fords) is the same as using Manumatic, but only in that top underdriven gear (4th). Turning off OD limits the top gear to 4th, in your case, like the Manumatic, which can limit every gear, in my case - IF you shift manually. So turing off OD is a cheap form of Manumatic.

Ford has the OD lock out so when you are hauling a lot of stuff in your mini-van, the transmission doesn't seek overdrive since with a heavy load it would constantly be shifting in and out of OD on the highway. OD, being over-driven, has very little torque.

Nevertheless, 5th is still overdrive, in both cases.

[Lone Solara]

Sorry to say, but the Manumatic doesn't get rid of the lag for me, and it doesn't improve it either. I've tried it for 3 days under several conditions and nothing made it better.

[TW85]

After several days of driving in manumatic, I can say there is no difference. The transmission shifts differently depending on how heavy you are on the throttle. It has a mind of its own at times.

[gogeta]

i always drive in sequential mode....just like a regular 5-speed....no lag wut so ever...i just downshift and punch it....in auto mode....my car has never shifted at ne thing lower than 3000-3500

[cablemn]

now that ive had a chance to test it out i will have to agree that the throttle is much more sensitive in manumatic. its especially good when i give it gas in a turn. it downshifts quickly in the middle of the turn whereas before it would downshift after the turn was over, too late to be of any use to make the car "sit down" into the turn and make the car handle properly. when straight line accelerating ive noticed a gradual depression of the gas pedal works much better than stomping on it.
it really shouldnt be that way though. acceleration should be on demand. we should not have to baby the throttle to get results. but until toyota gets on the stick (no pun intended) we'll have to make the best of it.
and let me praise mmcdonald for his insight. it shows us that where theres a will theres a way.

[mmcdonald]

Thanks for the accolades.

I am still not sure if some posters are aware of the difference between throttle lag and transmission lag.

If the throttle spools up, but there is no tranny kick-down, that is transmission lag. If you hit the throttle and there is no throttle response, then that is throttle lag.

There is a tsb for the throttle lag, and when I can get a service writer to answer the phone or return a voice mail at CarMax Laurel Toyota, I will get it fixed. But that doesn't look likely in the near future. So this will have to do for now.

[angelo]

the best cure for trottle lag (not tranny lag) is 93 octane fuel. My SLE V6 is totally different car with premium fuel with almost no trottle lag.